Friday, December 31, 2010

I knew today was going to "one of those days" when I logged on this morning, checked the news feeds and saw that nothing really earth-shattering had happened over night. Sure there's always some celebrity BS to write about during a slow news period, but, I've sort of reached the saturation point for this week. Although, the news that Jersey Shore skank Snooki will be lowered in a large hamster ball over a crowd of other skanks tonight to ring in the new year does merit some mention, only because it shows how desperate the 24/7 cable news channels are for something to talk about today.

There are rumors that Justin Beiber's balls may also drop tonight, but that is unconfirmed at this time.

In other news, yes, I had to work today, although, we're closing early and I'll be outta here by 6pm.

No big celebrations for the Rev. tonight. Paul and I usually just watch TV 'til the hamster ball drops, share a kiss and some non-alcoholic champagne substitute and go to bed.

In looking back over the past year, there is so much to go over. Everybody is compiling their Top-10 lists of everything that happened over the last 12 months. Tonight we also mark the passing of the first decade of the 2000's, so there are already retrospectives about the dark years of the Bush administration, 9/11, the misguided wars we're engaged in and all that crap.

Earlier this week, I asked readers to comment about what they thought were the big stories of the year. I got some feedback on FaceBook from a few people. Most thought the repeal of DADT was the big LGBT story of the year. While this is an historic milestone in our ongoing fight for equality, I think the real story is how our community came together in the past year to get this done.

Ordinary members of the LGBT community from all over the country, yes, even here in little podunk Roanoke, wrote letters and e-mails, made phone calls, lobbied their reps in person and demanded our rights. If not for the efforts of all of us, from everywhere in the U.S., this would not have happened. DADT repeal was the goal, but the big story is how we made it happen.

Our collective New Year's Resolution should be to keep up the pressure and the momentum to get DOMA repealed and get ENDA and the Uniting American Families Act passed. UAFA is legislation that would give LGBT American citizens in a committed relationship with someone from another country, the right to sponsor their partner/spouse for U.S. citizenship, the same way that opposite sex married couples can.

It's safe to say that we have passed the tipping point and the majority of Americans now support LGBT equality, but that doesn't mean we can kick back and relax. The right wing is retaking control in Washington in a couple of weeks and they are determined to undo the progress we've achieved and to see to it that the president fails. Love him or hate him, Obama is our best hope right now for moving forward. We've got to keep up the pressure on him and congress now more than ever.

Have a great time tonight, but don't get too crazy. Thanks for your support this year. I sometimes think that I'm the only one who reads my blog, but then I'll hear from someone who says thanks or tells me they like what I'm doing. That means so much to me and I really appreciate your support.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

When my brother and his wife got married in a big-ass Catholic ceremony back in the early 80's, they found a young priest that they thought was hip and cool and had him do the deed. As this cool priest spoke of the level of commitment it takes to get married during the cynical 80's, he told a joke that was popular at the time to help illustrate the point:

"What's the difference between love and herpes? Herpes lasts forever."

You could have heard a pin drop, as every jaw in the church dropped. My beautiful sister-in-law, in her perfect gown, who had spent months planning the perfect wedding, stared in stunned silence as tears welled up in her eyes. The church was flooded with complaints and the offending priest was reassigned to another parish.

I bring this up for a reason. When it comes to matters of human sexuality, the Catholic Church is still living in the 70's. Not the 1970's, the actual First Century 70's.

The Belfast Telegraph reported on the 21st of December that in his annual Christmas address to cardinals last week, Papa Ratzi tried to excuse the church's ~ and his own ~ lack of action in response to rampant child sex abuse, saying that it was seen as "normal".

“In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children,” the Pope said.

“It was maintained — even within the realm of Catholic theology — that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a ‘better than' and a ‘worse than'. Nothing is good or bad in itself.”

The Pope said abuse revelations in 2010 reached “an unimaginable dimension” which brought “humiliation” on the Church.

Back in ancient Rome and Greece, there was a socially accepted practice called pederasty, where an older married man would take on a teen-aged boy as an apprentice to teach him a trade. The was also a sexual relationship within this context. The practice was viewed with varying degrees of acceptance and disapproval at the time, but was tolerated by those cultures.

The ancient Romans, for all their accomplishments, were a lot like the Borg in the Star Trek universe. They had no cultural creativity of their own and assimilated the cultural practices of the civilizations they conquered. Pederasty was one of the practices they inherited from the Greeks. When Rome became Catholic, the Church continued its assimilationist global expansion.

So when the Pope says that pedophilia and child pornography were becoming more "accepted" by society, he probably believes it. He has spent his entire adult life isolated within a global organization with its own bizarre social mores and customs, that go back for centuries. Having had very little involvement with life in the modern outside world, it may seem to him that fucking a kid was normal, because everybody he knew was doing it.

Adult survivors of sex abuse within the church are furious at the pontiff.

"...Outraged Dublin victim Andrew Madden last night insisted that child abuse was not considered normal in the company he kept.

Mr Madden accused the Pope of not knowing that child pornography was the viewing of images of children being sexually abused, and should be named as such.

He said: “That is not normal. I don't know what company the Pope has been keeping for the past 50 years.”

There is a special place in Hell for pedophiles and Papa Ratzi has a front row center reservation.

Dan Savage, the columnist/activist behind the "It Gets Better Campaign" appeared on MSNBC's "Count Down" Wednesday night to address the notion the the GOP is suddenly a lot more gay friendly, because of GOProud.

Savage said, in part, "GOProud isn't a pro-gay rights organization, they're an organization of gay quislings & useful idiots that help to window-dress the republican party which is really still rabidly anti-gay to it's core. It's a little window dressing, a little gay window dressing, that allows them to appeal to moderates perhaps & independents as being less bigoted than the republican party actually is."

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

I just finished reading the new memoir from LGBT rights activist Justin Elzie, the first Marine to be discharged, then reinstated, under the recently repealed Don't Ask, Don't Tell and I am filled with a mix of thoughts and emotions. "Playing By the Rules" tells the story of a young gay man's struggle for parental acceptance and understanding in his youth on the family farm in Wyoming, to taking on the United States Marines for the right to serve his country openly, honestly and with honor.

You may know Justin from his many appearances on TV news programs over the last year speaking out against DADT, or from his arrest at the White House fence with a dozen other GetEqual anti-DADT protesters, or his arrest at the Manhattan Marriage License Bureau in February 2010, where he and three other activists blocked the entrance to the building by chaining themselves to the railing in a call for Marriage Equality. You may also have seen him in May of this year hosting a GetEqual rally in DC's Lafayette Square.

But what you may not know, is that Justin has been fighting the military's ban on open service since way before DADT was signed into law in 1993. Remember, before DADT, there was an outright ban on gays in the military. DADT was supposed to be a compromise that would allow us to serve in silence.

"Playing By the Rules" provides an inside look into the day to day life in a hypocritical military system that values honor above all else, but punishes gay, lesbian and bisexual soldiers for trying to live their lives with honesty and honor. The title of the book is inspired by the author's gradual discovery over many year's that the notion that playing by the rules will bring you success and happiness is an idealistic myth. Justin played by the rules of his parents, his church, his small town and the U.S. Marine Corps only to discover the bitter hypocrisy lurking just below the surface.

I'm one of those who always wants a look behind the scenes. I'm always curious about someone's back story and how they got to the point in their life where I first encountered them. How does a leader become a leader, especially when no one is following?

What Justin's story illustrates is that anyone who cares about telling the truth, standing up to injustice and who is tenacious enough, will ultimately succeed. What is most striking to me about this story is the irony. The Marines trained this young farm boy to be a soldier and warrior who would win at all costs, then tried to get him to shut up and go away when he applied this training to his innate sense of right and wrong and his need to be true to himself.

Justin tells of the stress of living his closeted life in the Marines, the thriving secret gay subculture in the military, his ongoing struggle for acceptance by his homophobic, conservative Christian family, his difficult decision to come out and the toll it took on his career and personal life and relationships. Despite the occasional doubts about whether it was worth it, he kept going, driven by nothing more than the knowledge that what he was doing was right.

Now for the nuts and bolts."Playing By the Rules" is not the best written book from a technical perspective. It is riddled with all sorts of grammatical and structural problems that would make any English Composition teacher wear out several red pencils. It would have benefited from some better editing or perhaps a co-author to help give it more polish. It often reads like a blog or personal journal. I get the feeling that Justin writes the way speaks, which is what most people do. It may not always be grammatically correct, but it's honest and to the point.

However, once you get past all of that and pay attention to the story, you get a sense of the man in a way that more polished works often miss. As a blogger, this quality hit home with me and kept my attention. I found it endearing that this man had the guts to tell his own story in his own unvarnished, unpretentious and unapologetic style. That seems to be a recurring theme in Elzie's life. He doesn't let the fact that he is in unfamiliar territory or may not know the rules stop him from completing his mission, to serve as an out and proud gay man in the U.S. Marines. Despite all the setbacks, obstacles and disappointments life has thrown at him, Justin remains at heart the often naive, optimistic farm boy he always was and it comes through in this work.

I'm not a professional book critic, but in this age of ghost-written celebrity autobiographies and reality TV "stars" getting famous for doing nothing, I am all too happy to showcase someone who has actually done something with his life and did not seek out publicity, except as a means of furthering the fight for LGBT equality.

"Playing By the Rules" fits well into today's of trends of citizen journalism and self published music. We may be seeing the advent of a new literary genre that values substance over style. It is my hope that Justin Elzie will continue his writing. He has so much more to say.

Image via WikipediaOkay, boys and girls, it's time to come out with the annual list. You know what I mean. Every New Year's all the cable news outlets (and Fox) release their list of the top stories of the year. Then they spend a week discussing it until you want to vomit, but they always ignore our stories. This is one year that LGBT Americans will not be ignored. We've made some serious progress, despite our setbacks.

I have my own ideas of what the top LGBT stories of the year are, but I want to hear from you. What do you think the biggest story of the year year was? DADT Repeal? Prop 8 being ruled unconstitutional?, Marriage Equality in DC? GetEqual and Grass Roots Activism? The overturning of Florida's ban on adoption by gays and lesbians? The increased attention to LGBT youth suicide?

Or was it our lack of progress and the setbacks we suffered?

Let me know what you think. I'll be putting together my list of the Top Five LGBT News Stories 2010 in the next few days, but I want your input. Leave a comment or drop me and e-mail at rev.stevescyberpulpit@yahoo.com .

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that "Ivory Queen of Soul" Teena Marie is no longer with us. Some of you younger folks may not understand what all the fuss is about. Marie had several hits back in the early 80's. She was one of the first white performers signed by Berry Gordie's legendary label, Motown Records. They didn't really know what to do with the 5'1" powerhouse, even though she was immensely popular with the black community. Her collaborations with Rick James were musical magic.

Musical tastes were changing at the time, from 70's R&B and Soul to the 80's sound of acts like Prince, Michael Jackson and the Pointer Sisters, but Lady Tee stuck to what she did best. Motown withheld her music from release and she eventually had to sue the company to get out of her contract and in doing so changed the way record companies could legally do business with their talent.

Back when I was living in the DC area, I used to listen to the radio at night to help me unwind. Teena Marie sang me to sleep many nights, courtesy of KISS-FM's Donnie Simpson, who would later go on the host his own show, "Video Soul", on BET. This clip comes from 1990, when Teena was a guest on his show promoting her latest album and she just blew me ~ and everybody else ~ away. This is what all the fuss is about.

This song from British singer/song writer Kate Bush was actually written in 1982, but not released until 1985 on the album, "Hounds of Love" . It was originally titled "Deal With God", but Bush's record company thought the name was too controversial.

Bush explained once in an interview why she gave in and changed the name of the song (via Wikipedia):

"I was trying to say that, really, a man and a woman, can't understand each other because we are a man and a woman. And if we could actually swap each other's roles, if we could actually be in each other's place for a while, I think we'd both be very surprised! [Laughs] And I think it would lead to a greater understanding. And really the only way I could think it could be done was either... you know, I thought a deal with the devil, you know. And I thought, 'well, no, why not a deal with God!' You know, because in a way it's so much more powerful the whole idea of asking God to make a deal with you. You see, for me it is still called 'Deal With God', that was its title."

"But we were told that if we kept this title that it would not be played in any of the religious countries, Italy wouldn't play it, France wouldn't play it, and Australia wouldn't play it! Ireland wouldn't play it, and that generally we might get it blacked purely because it had God in the title."

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

It looks like 80's bad boy turned plastic surgery nightmare, Mickey Rourke, has found a new niche for himself, playing rough and tumble athletes who have had their faces beaten to a pulp. The Academy Award winner (The Wrestler) has been in talks to portray Welsh rugby player Gareth Thomas, who came out last year.

According to the website BleedingCool.com, Rourke appeared on the British talk show Alan Carr's Chatty Man on Sunday night. Carr, who is gay, asked Rourke about the role:

Carr: Is it true you’re about to play a gay rugby player?

Rourke: You’re not supposed to say that, okay? Here’s the deal. When I met the rugby player, Gareth Thomas, this is one thing that he and I talked about. This is something that’s really important. We’re doing a movie about a man who plays rubgy who is gay.

Carr: Oh, I see. Sorry, I shouldn’t be so homophobic.

Rourke: That’s the point though.

Carr: Labels.

Rourke: Abso-fucking-lutely. I read the story. it’s one of the toughest, hardest sports in the world to play. They play with no pads. They play… it’s a really brutal sport. To be a man who plays rugby who is gay and to live with that secret for the amount of years that Gareth had, to perform at the high level that he performed at, it takes a lot of courage.

Carr: Are you going to learn the Welsh?

Rourke: I have no choice.

My immediate reaction is that my gag reflex is back. First of all, Mickey, you're way too old for the part. Second, just because you look like Joan Rivers, doesn't make you a gay man.

British comedian Alan Carr

And what the fuck is up with "you're not supposed to say that"? Why is this over the hill, punch-drunk, Muppet-face telling a gay man that it's wrong to refer to a gay rugby player as a "gay rugby player"? Yeah, I get it. You're an "Actor" and you're becoming your character 24/7 so you can give the best Oscar-worthy performance of your life.

News Flash: Some of us have been gay 24/7 for our entire lives and don't need some straight, Hollywood phony telling us that it's not P.C. to identify ourselves as such! So, thanks for the input, Botox Boy, but we really don't mind being called gay. In fact we really like it. We've fought long and hard to get to where we are and we don't get to turn it off after the wrap party.

Pop legend Sir Elton John (62) and his partner David Furnish (48) are now a couple of proud poppas. The duo told Us Weekly that their son, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, was born on Christmas day to a surrogate and weighed in at 7 lbs., 15 ounces.

Us Weekly mistakenly reported that the couple were married in 2005. They actually had a civil union ceremony in the UK, which does not offer same-sex marriage. The singer angered a lot of his gay fans in recent years by saying that American gays and lesbians should be satisfied with civil unions and not push for full marriage equality.

John and Furnish were denied their application to adopt a Ukrainian HIV positive baby in 2009, as the Ukraine only allows adoption by married couples and did not recognize their civil union.

Baby Zachary was born in California and a representative for the two said the identity of the surrogate will not be released in order to protect her privacy.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Veteran actor Richard Chamberlain (Dr. Kildaire, The Thornbirds), who came out in 2006 in his memoir, "Shattered Love", sat down for an interview with the Advocate recently and talked about coming out late in his career, playing gay versus straight roles and whether or not it's advisable for actors to come out publicly.

You were a wildly successful closeted actor during a period of time when coming out was unheard of, but the climate of acceptance has significantly changed in recent years. How do you feel about gay actors who still remain closeted as we near 2011?

It’s complicated. There’s still a tremendous amount of homophobia in our culture. It’s regrettable, it’s stupid, it’s heartless, and it’s immoral, but there it is. For an actor to be working is a kind of miracle, because most actors aren’t, so it’s just silly for a working actor to say, “Oh, I don’t care if anybody knows I’m gay” — especially if you’re a leading man. Personally, I wouldn’t advise a gay leading man–type actor to come out.

When can a leading man come out — when he’s 69 and promoting a memoir?

I have no idea. Despite all the wonderful advances that have been made, it’s still dangerous for an actor to talk about that in our extremely misguided culture. Look at what happened in California with Proposition 8. Please, don’t pretend that we’re suddenly all wonderfully, blissfully accepted.

I'm trying hard not to get angry about this story. It may be just a generational thing, like when your dad doesn't get your taste in music. Or it could be that maybe, just maybe, he has a point. It's rare enough for an actor to be able to make a living by acting full time. It's even more rare for an actor to become wildly successful, rich and famous.

It is understandable, or at least it should be, that if an actor has been able to beat the odds and achieve all of those things, that he or she might be overly cautious about coming out and risking the loss of everything they've worked so hard for. Add to that the fear of typecasting, like Nathan Lane and Harvey Firestein have often been and the closet can seem like a warm safe place.

For example, Rupert Everett was among the first wave of successful actors to come out. He quickly became typecast as the gay best friend and hasn't worked much since. Of course, it could also be that his horrendous plastic surgery made him look like a completely different person.

On the other hand, it is because of the courage of actors like Chamberlain, Everett, Firestein and Lane that other gay actors feel more comfortable coming out with little impact on their careers. Either way, coming out is a very personal choice. It certainly helps for young LGBT people to be have role models in the entertainment industry, but some people just aren't the role model type.

Look for Chamberlain on ABC's "Brothers and Sisters" in coming weeks playing the love interest of Uncle Saul. Chamberlain's character comes back into Saul's life as the man who gave him HIV back in the 80's, but doesn't remember the encounter.

Good morning from a very frigid and snowbound Morning Wood Acres! I hope you all got what you wanted for the winter holiday of your preference.

You may remember that before all the holiday insanity took hold of the planet last week, our president gave us the gift of signing DADT repeal. What you might have missed is that in the aftermath there was some Q&A press time where the Big O was asked about marriage equality. His response was that in light of the progress that's been made in the last couple of years (albeit, without his help), his views are "evolving".

Vice President Joe Biden, appearing on "Good Morning America" on Friday, where George Stephanopoulos asked him about several subjects, including marriage equality. Biden made reference to the president's remarks and added, "the country's evolving, and there's inevitability for a national consensus on gay marriage. That is my view."

President Obama has said he wants to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), but will not say publicly whether he believes the law is unconstitutional. With the political shift in DC after the November elections, there is little hope of repeal for at least the next two years, although there are court challenges making their way to the Supreme Court, where the law may be done away with. For the record, Biden voted for DOMA back in 1993.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

News broke Sunday night that veteran R&B singer Teena Marie passed away in her home. Details are sparse at this time, but Huffington Post reports that the singer was found by her daughter and had a medical history of unspecified seizures.

I first heard Teen Marie's music back in '79 or '80, when she was part of Rick James' stable of talent at Motown. James produced several of her hits, including "It Must Be Magic" (featuring backup vocals by The Temptations), "Square Biz", "Portuguese Love" and "Fire and Desire" (a duet with Rick James). But Marie scored her biggest hit after leaving Motown with 1984's "Lovergirl".

The four-time Grammy nominee never achieved the super stardom of her contemporaries, Donna Summer and Gloria Gaynor, but every time I here her music, I remember partying the night away with my friends at our favorite DC night spots The Lost and Found, Mr, P's and The Frat House, during the last days of Disco.

Teena Marie stood "less than five foot-one", but she could belt out a song with the best of them. R.I.P. Lady Tee.

Friday, December 24, 2010

In what's been called a Christmas miracle, Jim and Dylan, a gay couple in Manhattan's Chelsea gayborhood, began receiving letters at their W. 22nd St. apartment recently, addressed to Santa Claus. There was no mix up at the local post office. There were no typos to blame on the handwritten pieces of mail. They were all clearly marked with the couple's home address and they arrived by the dozen's every day from kids all over the city.

So what's a couple of trendy New York gays to do? Without giving it much thought or debate, they decided the only thing to do was to fulfill the requests. This video comes courtesy of The New York Times.

Well, boys and girls, I was thinking about doing a really sappy, heartfelt Christmas post, but if you've been following along for any length of time, you know that I don't do sappy very well.

We don't make a big deal about Christmas here at Morning Wood Acres. Paul and I will spend a quiet day at home with the cats and the ducks. We'll exchange gifts and call our parents. I'll be starting on my traditional Christmas lasagna when I get home from work tonight, so it will be ready to put in the oven tomorrow.

Thank you all for your support his year. There may be blogs that bring you the news faster, that have teams of bloggers contributing to their sites, have a higher national profile, more readers and more Capital Hill contacts than I have, but here at Rev. Steve's Cyber-Pulpit, you'll find something that none of the other blogs have, Me.

Every morning I get up and read through the news feeds and try to bring my own unique perspective to the stories that I think are important to the LGBT community here in Southwestern Virginia and across the country. A lot of the stories are covered by everybody and most of those bloggers are all singing the same song. I try to see beyond the obvious and bring you my own perspective, which is sometimes the opposite of what you'll see everywhere else.

I also enjoy sharing stories about what's happening to our LGBT brothers and sisters around the world. There are great things happening in many other countries where LGBT rights are being advanced in ways that should both give us hope for what we can achieve and make us feel a little ashamed for our lack of leadership as a nation.

There are stories happening every day in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, where are queer cousins are truly oppressed, that give us reason to be thankful for the fact that we are free to fight for our rights without being tortured, imprisoned or killed just because we're different.

By sharing these stories with you, I hope to help Roanoke's LGBT community feel a little less isolated from the rest of our community. We live in a beautiful part of the country where some very ugly laws have been passed because we have not stood up for ourselves. I challenge each of you to take a more active roll in your own fate. Be the change you want to see in the world.

You can have your Charlie Brown, your Rudolph, your Frostie and your Grinch. Nobody does a Christmas special like Dr. Who, the British time traveling SciFi hero.

Every Christmas the new season of Dr. Who premiers in the UK on BBC1 with the Doctor chasing aliens and saving Earth from total destruction. We usually don't get to see the holiday special here in the states until sometime in the spring, but this year, producers have decided to spread their holiday cheer across the pond so us yanks can watch along with the Brits on Christmas night at 9pm on BBC America.

In previous years ~ and previous Doctors (there have been 11) ~ the doctor has saved the planet from a giant spider queen, an invasion of Daleks pent on exterminating the human race and an alien cruise ship replica of the Titanic about to crash into Buckingham Palace (which he accomplishes with the help of pop singer Kylie Minogue).

This year the Doctor encounters an intergalactic Ebenezer Scrooge, who lends money to the needy, provided they have the necessary collateral, a family member. Harry Potter's Michael Gambon guest stars. So put the kids to bed early, spike the eggnog and tune in to BBC America for a a roller coaster of a Christmas special. Did I mention there are aliens?

Glee's Jane Lynch takes on the network suits at Fox with some ideas for better programming. She's also got some very special Christmas gifts for the kids in the cast, a basket of sick kittens. Matthew Morrison makes a special cameo appearance.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I didn't know this song was done by The Waitresses. It kind of sounded like Blondie. No wonder I couldn't find it yesterday. So here we go folks, "Christmas Wrapping" from The Waitresses. I couldn't find a video of the band performing this song, but the audio on this one is pretty good and the cheesy light display sets it off in a festive way.

If you're "of a certain age", you'll remember the The Waitresses did the theme song from the short lived 1979 sitcom "Square Pegs", starring the gawky, nerdy, teen-aged Sarah Jessica Parker as a gawky, nerdy teenager trying to fit in with the popular kids. I think it's safe to say she finally made it over the hump.

In the organization's zeal to defend itself from the charges of being an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, it continues to make huge missteps.

And the latest just happened today.

Now SPLC contends that FRC - and other so-called morality groups - either deliberately rely on junk science, distort legitimate science, or push propaganda to make the lgbt community seem like the dreaded "other" out to destroy American values.

FRC contends that SPLC is unfairly attacking them because they stand against gay marriage even though SPLC has made it clear that this isn't the case.

For the record, FRC believes that every human being, including those who experience same-sex attractions and those who engage in homosexual conduct, is created in the image of God and is loved by Him. How this qualifies as “hate” is a mystery.

With all the fanfare surrounding the yesterday's historic signing of DADT repeal, you may have missed this little tidbit of news. In yet another sign that we are winning the culture wars, Christianist snake oil salesman/nut-job Pat Robertson has come out in favor of marijuana decriminalization.

The 700 Club founder, who believes he can steer away hurricanes with the power of prayer, said this week on his show that locking up pot smokers is a mistake. He believes that sending them to faith-based treatment facilities is a better solution.

I don't know about you, but religious bullshittery is one of the things that drove me to smoke pot in the first place at the age of 15.

The Christian Coalition founder, who has made demonizing the LGBT community a successful recruiting tactic for his televangelist mega-church and who fleeces little old ladies on a daily basis to build his financial empire, told his gullible sheeple, "We're locking up people that have taken a couple puffs of marijuana and next thing you know they've got 10 years with mandatory sentences. These judges just say, they throw up their hands and say nothing we can do with these mandatory sentences. We've got to take a look at what we're considering crimes and that's one of 'em."

Like most right-wing conservatards, once Pat sees that he could financially gain by changing his position, he has an epiphany straight from heaven. Maybe he'll come out in favor of changing prostitution laws now. So many of our politicians are getting busted for this victimless crime, when what they really need is a little quality time with Baby Jesus.

I'm posting the video here. He goes on a bit about his prison ministry. I guess it helps when you're selling bullshit to have a captive audience. Be warned, if you're trying to not overeat during the Holidays, this may help motive you. If you still have a gag reflex, you may want to have a bucket handy.

So you don't like all the commercialism and insanity associated with Christmas? Join the small but growing number of people who celebrate Festivus, the alternative winter holiday created by Frank Castanza on the popular on the 90's sitcom "Seinfeld".

The annual celebration takes place every December 23rd. Instead of a Christmas tree, there is a simple aluminum Festivus Pole, because as Frank says, "it has a very high strength to weight ratio" and because he finds tinsel distracting. The Festivus dinner has no special traditional favorites, is open to everyone and involves the Airing of the Grievances and the Feats of Strength.

So let the rest of the world stress out over the perfect gift, the perfect meal, the perfect tree and decorations and all the annoying carolers. Tonight, kick back with some take-out, bitch about your family, wrestle with your friends, then lay down on the couch and stare at your pole.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Christmas is coming, the rubes are getting fat. Please put a penny in the old silk hat... or whatever.

It's a song about busking (singing in the street for loose change) during the holidays.

"Over the Top" would be Rorik's middle name, if he had one, or even a last name. So this week he once again takes to the street corner to bestow his gift of holiday song unto an unsuspecting public, this time with a little something extra.

Since this is the last New Wave Wednesday post before Christmas, I wanted to share some music that was in keeping with the season of giving, sharing and caring, but I thought about it for a second and opted instead for this 1977 yuletide classic "Father Christmas", by The Kinks.

Okay, technically, this song is more Punk than New Wave, so sue me. I actually wanted to post a Christmas song I heard last night on the radio by Blondie, but I couldn't find it on line. It's not the newer song, "We Three Kings", which kinda sucks, but the one called "Merry Christmas", I think. Any way, if any of you know the song or find a link to it, please share it and I'll post it.

About Me

Steve Publicover is a veteran LGBT rights activist and blogger living in the Charlotte, NC area. Steve has an extensive background in public speaking, advocacy and education. Contact him at stevepub123@gmail.com.